Golden Graham: Former Wildcat star making most of Super Bowl opportunity

Sunday

Feb 3, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By AL PIKEapike@fosters.com

DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire football team had just fallen behind 14-0 in the first quarter of a playoff game at Georgia Southern and coach Sean McDonnell needed someone to make a play.

Sophomore Corey Graham volunteered.

Give me a crack,” he said. “Give me a crease.”

Graham returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards to the Georgia Southern 1, setting up the Wildcats’ first touchdown in an eventual 27-23 win.

“You could see it in his eyes,” McDonnell said. “He wanted to do something great and he did.”

Graham, who played for UNH from 2003 to 2006, no longer returns kicks, but he’s still making plays.

Only now it’s in the NFL for the Baltimore Ravens, who take on the San Francisco 49ers today in New Orleans in Super Bowl XLVII.

“Corey is just a great football player,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh told reporters at the team’s facility before the AFC championship game against the Patriots. “When you see guys play well on tape, whatever they’re doing, if they do it well, you’ve got a football player. So we started with that.”

Graham’s biggest contributions this postseason might have come in the divisional playoff game against the Denver Broncos when he twice intercepted quarterback Peyton Manning.

He returned the first interception 39 yards for a touchdown and the second set up the game-winning field goal in overtime.

The following week against the Patriots in the AFC championship game he was in on 11 tackles. Only iconic teammate Ray Lewis had more.

As a starting cornerback, Graham’s assignment was to cover Wes Welker, New England’s top receiver.

“The thing I remember most about Corey is how competitive he was,” McDonnell said. “If it’s a day when you’re doing one-on-ones against receivers he was going against (David) Ball and that was it. He was going against the best.”

For much of his pro career, however, Graham has been typecast as a special teams’ player.

That was his primary role with the Chicago Bears, the team that drafted him in the fifth round in 2007. And that’s why the Ravens wanted him after his contract with the Bears expired and he became an unrestricted free agent.

The Lions and Seahawks were also interested.

Graham made the Pro Bowl after the 2011 season because of his special teams’ prowess. Although he started nine games in 2008 and showed a knack for making plays, the Bears still weren’t sold on his speed or his athleticism.

“I tried to be the best special teams’ player in the league,” Graham told reporters in New Orleans. “When you’re doing that, sometimes you get labeled like that. Sometimes it’s hard to get that label off.”

He started only 10 games in five years with the Bears, including the nine in 2008. Graham missed the second half of his senior season at UNH with a broken ankle that hindered his early progress.

He estimates he wasn’t completely healthy until his second year in the NFL.

“He was up here a couple years ago talking about his situation with the Bears,” McDonnell said. “He never really felt that he was going to get the opportunity to do things full-time. He was an all-pro special teams’ player and I think they painted him into a corner that’s who he was.”

Graham didn’t crack the starting lineup with the Ravens’ until midseason, and it took a couple of injuries to open the door.

“Corey Graham was a guy that we brought in because he was a special teamer,” Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome told reporters in New Orleans. “He had been to the Pro Bowl (as a special teams’ player), but when he played (defense) for the Bears, he had played very good football.

“He wanted an opportunity, and we saw some things during the OTAs and minicamps that he could play. He has the height, weight and speed we look for at the position, (and) then when he got his opportunity, he stepped in.”

Graham started the last eight games of the regular season and three playoff contests. He remained the starter even after one of the injured players returned.

“He’s always taken advantage of situations when he’s gotten in there and made plays,” McDonnell said. “He’s always been in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing.”

In 11 starts this season he has four interceptions.

“He has great ball skills,” Ravens secondary coach Teryl Austin told the Chicago Tribune. “If there is a ball to be caught, he’ll catch it. He gives us toughness. He’s a really good tackler. Sometimes you don’t have to be the fastest guy in the world if you know where you are going and you anticipate.”

In the AFC championship game, Graham was part of a defensive effort that forced three turnovers and held the Patriots to their lowest point total in almost four years in a 28-13.

The Ravens shut New England out in the second half.

“I go back to his competitive nature,” McDonnell said. “He wanted to be the best guy on the field and he wanted to compete against the best guys on the field.”

Graham also had eight tackles (7 solo), a team-high three passes defensed and tied a franchise record with two interceptions in the 38-35, double-overtime win in the divisional playoff game against the Broncos.

Graham has 26 total tackles, two interceptions and five passes defensed in three playoff games.

“It has been unreal,” Graham said. “That’s what you ask for. You wait five years, and I finally get my chance to play on defense. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”